MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Carlos Correa was rewarded for his five-hit performance on Wednesday by seeing his name dropped in the batting order from second to fifth in the batting order.
He responded by adding three more hits, including an upper-deck home run, in the Twins' 6-2 win over the Oakland Athletics on Thursday night.
The home run in the eighth inning led to the debut of yet another dugout celebration.
When Correa returned to the dugout he donned a purple vest and grabbed an inflatable purple guitar in honor of Minneapolis music icon Prince, whose legacy was being celebrated at Prince Day at the ballpark
“I’m like, ‘This is creative. I love this,’” Correa said of his reaction to seeing the vest before the game. “I was like, ‘I want to hit a home run so bad!’ It happened in the last at-bat, but it happened. It’s a great idea. I loved it.”
There's no word on what happened to the home run sausage that had been tossed around in the dugout following a Twins long ball.
With the win, the Twins moved to within 7 1/2 games of Cleveland in the AL Central.
The Guardians were off Thursday and begin a weekend home series against Seattle on Friday.
Joe Ryan struck out five in seven strong innings and the Twins slashed the A's for 13 hits — 12 singles and Correa’s homer in the seventh inning.
Byron Buxton had three hits and drove in two runs, and Royce Lewis and Austin Martin had two hits apiece as the Twins won for the fourth time in five games.
Ryan (5-5) worked seven innings for the fourth time in five starts and lowered his ERA to 3.24. The 28-year-old right-hander gave up three hits and one walk.
“That’s the focus,” Ryan said about working deeper into games. “I just go into each game looking for a quality start whatever that means, whatever that looks like, I guess.”
Tyler Soderstrom homered for the third time in four games for the A’s, who lost their sixth straight. Luis Medina (0-2) gave up four runs in five innings in his third start of the season for Oakland.
Correa has 14 hits in his last five games, raising his batting average from .255 to .299.
“He’s putting on a show right now. It’s impressive,” said Lewis, who is 11 for 32 with four home runs since he returned June 3 after missing two months with a strained quad.
njuries have prevented Buxton, Correa and Lewis from playing together. But, with the trio now healthy, manager Rocco Baldelli hopes the recent offensive surge is a sign of things to come.
“It’s a very dynamic trio of guys,” Baldelli said. “Having them all feeling great, playing great at the same time – this is what happens. They play like this and all of a sudden we’re putting runs on the board, we’re making a lot of different things happen.”
Soderstrom opened the scoring with a two-run, 431-foot homer to center field in the second inning.
Buxton’s two-run single in the bottom of the inning tied it for the Twins.
UP NEXT
The A’s will send righty Mitch Spence (4-3, 3.68) to the mound for the second game of the series on Friday. Spence has made five starts since joining the rotation in mid-May. He’s coming off his best outing of the season in which he allowed two runs in seven innings against the Blue Jays on June 9.
Starting for the Twins is righthander Simeon Woods Richardson (2-1, 2.84), who allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings during last Saturday's loss at Pittsburgh. It was the longest outing of his major league career, which covers 11 starts.
Friday is also the debut of the Twins' new City Connect uniforms, which were unveiled Monday.